1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a fisherman's cooler insert for use with the top lid of a portable ice cooler, by means of which a fisherman can safely store his caught fish within the cooler at a safe temperature below 40.degree. F. for a substantial length of time without the need for opening the lid, thus preventing contamination/poisoning.
2. Background
It is imperative to keep caught fish alive or stored below 40.degree. F. in order to prevent food contamination/poisoning because a fish's infectious bacterial agents replicate and produce toxins at 40.degree. F. and above, while all infectious bacterial agents experience marked reduction in their ability to replicate and produce such toxins below 40.degree. F. A prudent fisherman on a day's fishing expedition or outing stores his caught fish in an ice cooler containing ice and the time it takes to melt the ice with the consequent water temperature in the cooler reaching 40.degree. F will depend upon how long the cooler remains open while the fisherman unhooks his caught fish and deposits it in the cooler, and the number of times this cycle must be repeated with respect to subsequently caught fish. Cold air is lost from the cooler and the melting of ice with its consequent change of state to water and the warming of such water is progressively accelerated on each and every occasion that the cooler is opened to deposit a fish in the cooler. Contributing factors are the type and size of the fish, and the time it takes the fisherman to remove an imbedded hook from a squirming and thrashing fish, and whether the fisherman maintains physical control over the fish. Another contributing and delaying time factor that will necessitate keeping the cooler open is that fish previously deposited in the cooler may wiggle or jump out and will have to be retrieved and redeposited in the cooler. As the cooler becomes filled with more fish, the easier it will be for previously deposited fish to jump out when the cooler is opened. And another contributing factor will be the travel time required in traveling to and returning home from his fishing trip.
In a scientific experiment conducted by the applicants under identical conditions for purposes of comparing the efficacy and efficiency of their invention with a state-of-the-art invention, the water temperature in their cooler remained below 40.degree. F. for 21 hours and 50 minutes, while the water temperature in the state-of-the-art invention's cooler, otherwise identical to theirs, remained below 40.degree. F. for only 10 hours and 40 minutes, for a 104.68% improvement of their invention over the state-of-the-art invention. The PETITION TO MAKE SPECIAL, accompanying the filing of this patent application, including the applicants' sworn affidavit with respect to their comparison experiment scientifically conducted by them, is fully incorporated herein to the same effect as if the same were fully set forth in full herein.